Segments in this Video

What is a Household Worker? (02:07)

In the Philippines, women are shown the necessary domestic parts of the job. They are trained for two weeks before working abroad.

Meet Maria (01:54)

Hear why Maria chose to be a domestic worker in Hong Kong despite having to leave her family. There are more than 42 million domestic workers worldwide.

Interviewing Filipino Women(04:51)

The Philippines is the 2nd largest workforce provider in the world. Nathan Aang questions applicants for domestic positions. Women can be rejected for superficial reasons.

Nathan's New Recruits (02:00)

Pictures are taken of the domestic maids to show possible employers. The maids sign documents despite not knowing their future working conditions.

Hong Kong (02:58)

There are seven million inhabitants here, 350 thousand of which are domestic workers. A pregnant woman selects the domestic from a catalog. Aang talks on the dress requirements of domestics.

Doris Wang's Home(02:30)

Wang lives with her husband and two children. She relies on her maids, one of which is working to send her brother to college. Fifty percent of workers must share a room with children or the elderly.

International Federation of Domestic Workers(02:21)

Domestics work 17 hours a day on average. Humanitarian organizations estimate 1 out of 6 have been forced into labor. A union leader from this organization talks on working conditions.

Refuge in Hong Kong(04:20)

Buhai is the director at Bethune House, a women's foyer created by the local NGO where domestic workers in distress are welcome. Workers talk of their struggles in past violent domestic situations.

Mother to All Domestic Workers(02:34)

Buhai helps a domestic worker with a legal settlement. She discusses the emotional growth happening in her makeshift shelter.

Lebanon(02:31)

Two hundred and fifty thousand servants are legally spread throughout this country. See the poor living conditions of 300 workers seeking to escape their employers.

Business Proposes Ethiopian Domestics(02:37)

These women are poor and are underpaid. Domestics are not allowed days off or to go outside without permission. See videos of domestics abused by their captors.

Lawyer Mohanna Ishaq(03:54)

Ishaq visits Jaqueline in a hospital and she recounts the physical and sexual abuse she endured. She was thrown from her balcony; her abuser was arrested.

Human Rights Watch(03:18)

There is one domestic suicide per week. Criminal lawyer Nasser Sayeh describes the kafala system as "exploitation and impunity." Sejaan Azzi, Lebanon's minister of Labor, seeks to abolish the kafala system.

70 Migrante Helps Immigrants(02:54)

Domestic women describe their abuse to other supporters. Martinez describes how the media helps support injustice of migrant workers.

Description

In Asia, in the Middle East, and even in Europe, in the privacy of families that can act with impunity, over fifteen million housekeepers are victims of slavery: exploited at will, abused, and sometimes raped, these invisible women are the sacrificed workers of the global economy. States, institutions, middlemen... no one is interested in change, despite a smoldering spirit of revolt.